TWI892562B - Memory card reading device - Google Patents

Abstract

This invention provides a memory card reading device, which includes a communication interface, one or more slots, and a controller. The slot is used for electrically connecting to a memory card. When executing an access command on the memory card, the controller determines whether an error has occurred based on busy time. When multiple memory cards are disposed and the error meets a switching condition, the controller will switch to another memory card for further usage.

Description

Memory card reader

This disclosure relates to a memory card reader device that can automatically detect the status of a memory card and perform corresponding operations.

With the advent of the information age and the increasing affordability of storage devices, they are becoming increasingly popular in various applications. However, storage devices such as hard disk drives (HDDs), solid-state drives (SSDs), and flash memories gradually wear out over time, ultimately leading to device damage and data loss. Existing storage device monitoring mechanisms include S.M.A.R.T. (Self-Monitoring Analysis and Reporting Technology), a standard for hard drive status monitoring and warning systems. The hard drive records various health indicators and uses commands to read the values from the hard drive to determine whether there is a risk of damage.

However, current S.M.A.R.T. systems are mostly passively triggered. If the user doesn't proactively retrieve the information, there's no way to proactively notify them of potential corruption, potentially leading to accidental data loss. Furthermore, S.M.A.R.T.-compatible storage devices, aside from hard drives, are currently limited in popularity. Without emergency measures, it's easy to lose data in a timely manner.

An embodiment of the present disclosure provides a memory card reading device, comprising a communication interface, a first slot, a second slot, and a controller. The communication interface is electrically connected to an electronic device. The first slot is electrically connected to a first memory card. The second slot is electrically connected to a second memory card. The controller is electrically connected to the communication interface, the first slot, and the second slot, and is used to set the first slot as an activation slot, receive access instructions from the electronic device, and access the first memory card according to the access instructions. The controller determines whether an error occurs when executing the access instruction, and determines whether the error meets a switching condition. If the error meets the switching condition, the controller is used to set the second slot as the activation slot.

From another perspective, an embodiment of the present disclosure provides a memory card reader device, comprising a communication interface, a slot, and a controller. The communication interface is electrically connected to an electronic device. The slot is electrically connected to a memory card. The controller is electrically connected to the communication interface and the slot, and is configured to receive access instructions from the electronic device and access the memory card according to the access instructions. The controller is configured to obtain a busy time for executing the access instruction and determine whether the busy time is greater than a time threshold. If the busy time is greater than the time threshold, the controller determines that an error has occurred.

In order to make the above features and advantages of the present invention more clearly understood, embodiments are given below and described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

The terms “first,” “second,” etc. used herein do not particularly refer to order or sequence, but are only used to distinguish elements or operations described with the same technical terms.

This disclosure provides a memory card reader device that bridges the gap between an electronic device and a memory card. This memory card reader device can automatically detect the health of a memory card and, when necessary, switch to another memory card to prevent data loss due to card damage. Several embodiments are provided below to illustrate this.

[First embodiment]

Figure 1 is a schematic diagram of a memory card reader device according to a first embodiment. Referring to Figure 1 , a memory card reader device 110 is used to bridge between an electronic device 160 and memory cards 171 and 172. The electronic device 160 may be a personal computer, laptop, mobile phone, tablet computer, surveillance system, server, or the like, but the present disclosure is not limited thereto. Memory cards 171 and 172 contain flash memory. In some embodiments, the memory card reader device 110, also referred to as a card reader, is a standalone device, while the electronic device 160 is, for example, a mobile phone. In some embodiments, the memory card reader 110 and the memory cards 171 and 172 are installed in the same device. For example, the memory card reader 110 is a chip on a circuit board, and the memory cards 171 and 172 are soldered to the same circuit board. In some embodiments, the memory card reader 110 can also be installed in the same device as the electronic device 160. For example, the electronic device 160 is a surveillance system (including a camera, processor, etc.), and the memory card reader 110 is a circuit or chip within the system. In other words, the memory card reader 110 can be an independent device, or it can be installed on the same circuit board or in the same device as the electronic device 160 and any one of the memory cards 171 and 172.

The memory card reader device 110 includes a controller 120, a communication interface 130, slots 141, 142, and indicator devices 151, 152. The controller 120 is electrically connected to the communication interface 130, slots 141, 142, and indicator devices 151, 152. The controller 120, also known as a control circuit, is configured to receive access commands (e.g., read commands or write commands) from the electronic device 160 and perform corresponding operations on the memory cards 171, 172. The communication interface 130 is configured to electrically connect to the electronic device 160 and may be, for example, a port or circuit compliant with the Universal Serial Bus (USB) or Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIE) specifications. Slot 141 is electrically connected to memory card 171, and slot 142 is electrically connected to memory card 172. Slots 141 and 142 are, for example, connection ports or circuits that comply with similar storage specifications, such as the Secure Digital (SD) specification, the Universal Flash Storage (UFS) specification, the Embedded Multimedia Card (eMMC) specification, or the Multimedia Card (MMC) specification. Indicator devices 151 and 152 are used to provide a message to the user. This message can be presented in the form of light (such as a light signal), sound, or image. For example, indicator devices 151 and 152 can be light-emitting diodes, buzzers, display panels, etc.

Figure 2 is a flow chart illustrating a memory card health status detection method according to a first embodiment. Referring to Figure 2 , in step 201, controller 120 receives an access command from electronic device 160 via communication interface 130. This access command can be a read command or a write command. For example, if the access command is to read 1MB of data from memory card 171, the access command will include information such as the data address and size.

In step 202, the controller 120 issues multiple continuous access commands to the memory card 171 based on the access command. Each continuous access command is used to access smaller data (e.g., 4kB). There are multiple signal lines between the memory card 171 and the slot 141 to transmit data, commands, or other signals. After the controller 120 sends a continuous access command to the memory card 171, the level of one of the signal lines (e.g., the DAT0 line in the SD specification) is set to indicate a busy state. At this time, the memory card 171 executes the continuous access command through the internal control chip (not shown). After the control chip inside the memory card 171 completes the execution of the continuous access command, it will set the level of the above signal line again to eliminate the busy state. The controller 120 calculates the time the memory card 171 is in a busy state (hereinafter referred to as busy time) through the level of the signal line. Since one access command corresponds to multiple continuous access commands, it also corresponds to multiple busy times (one continuous access command corresponds to one busy time).

As memory card 171 wears out, the busy time for each continuous access command execution may become longer and longer. For example, some flash memory blocks in memory card 171 may become unusable due to reaching (or approaching) their erase limit, requiring memory card 171 to spend more time writing and moving data. In step 203, controller 120 obtains the busy time corresponding to any access command and determines whether the busy time is greater than a time threshold. If the busy time is not greater than the time threshold, the next continuous access command can be executed, and this process continues until all continuous access commands are processed. If the busy time is greater than the time threshold, the controller 120 determines that an error has occurred. In some embodiments, when an error occurs, in step 204, the controller 120 accumulates an error count based on the error. In step 205, the controller 120 determines whether the error count is greater than the error count threshold. If the error count is not greater than the error count threshold, the damage to the memory card 171 is not serious, and the next continuous access command can be processed until all continuous access commands are processed. If the error count exceeds the threshold, in step 206, the controller 120 generates a warning message. This warning message can be sent by the controller 120 via the indicator device 151, for example by lighting a light-emitting diode, causing a buzzer to emit a specific sound, or causing a display panel to display a specific pattern. In some embodiments, the controller 120 can also transmit the warning message to the electronic device 160 in text, numeric, or binary form.

In the above embodiment, step 203 is to obtain one of the multiple busy times corresponding to the access instruction for determination. In other embodiments, all the busy times corresponding to the access instruction are determined, and steps 204 and 205 are executed each time the busy time is greater than the time threshold.

Because each memory card has different characteristics, the aforementioned time threshold is adaptively determined. In some embodiments, the controller 120 first issues multiple continuous access commands to the memory card 171 for testing and collects the corresponding busy times (referred to as historical busy times). The controller 120 then calculates the average and standard deviation of these historical busy times and sets the time threshold based on the average and standard deviation. For example, the controller 120 may set the time threshold to be the average plus n times the standard deviation, where n is a positive number, such as 2, 2.5, 3, etc.

In some embodiments, the above-mentioned time threshold can also be set by machine learning. For example, other memory cards with the same model, the same production batch, similar production date, or other same (or similar) hardware information as memory card 171 can be obtained. Issue multiple continuous access instructions for testing to these memory cards, calculate the corresponding busy time, and record whether the memory card is damaged. When the memory card is damaged, a corresponding label can be generated based on it. This label can be used to indicate (or judge) whether the memory card will be damaged in the future. Next, the busy time is used as the input of a machine learning model, and the label is used as the output of the machine learning model for training. This machine learning model can be a linear equation, a polynomial equation, an exponential equation, or a complex neural network, but this disclosure is not limited thereto. The trained machine learning model can then be applied to the memory card 171. Each time the memory card 171 generates a busy time, the busy time can be input into the machine learning model to determine whether it is about to be corrupted.

In the embodiment of FIG. 1 , the memory card reader 110 includes two slots 141 and 142. The method of FIG. 2 can be applied to either memory card 171 or 172. For example, when applied to memory card 172, a warning message can be provided via indicator device 152 in step 206. In some embodiments, the memory card reader 110 may have only one slot. The method of FIG. 2 does not limit the memory card reader 110 to having multiple slots.

[Second embodiment]

In the second embodiment, the hardware architecture of the memory card reader is as shown in Figure 1. However, unlike the first embodiment, in the second embodiment, it is determined whether the memory card is damaged and should not be used anymore. If so, it switches to another memory card. Figure 3 is a flow chart illustrating the control method of the memory card reader according to the second embodiment. Please refer to Figures 1 and 3. In step 310, the controller 120 sets slot 141 as the activation slot. In this embodiment, only one slot will be activated at a time. When the slot is activated, the corresponding memory card will be used. If the slot is not activated, the corresponding memory card will not be used. Therefore, when slot 141 is the activation slot, only memory card 171 will be used. Specifically, step 310 includes steps 311 and 312. In step 311, initialization is performed. Controller 120 performs USB or PCIE interface initialization procedures with electronic device 160, providing information such as the size and type of memory card 171. In step 312, the slot identification code is determined. For example, if the identification code for slot 141 is "1" and the identification code for slot 142 is "2," controller 120 will initially select the identification code "1."

In step 321, the controller 120 receives an access command from the electronic device 160 via the communication interface 130 and accesses the currently used memory card 171 according to the access command. As described in the first embodiment, the access command may be a read command or a write command. The controller 120 issues multiple consecutive access commands to the memory card 171 based on the access command, with each access command corresponding to a busy time.

In step 322, the controller 120 determines whether an error occurs when executing the access instruction. There are many ways to determine whether an error occurs. For example, the method of the first embodiment can be used to determine whether an error occurs based on whether the busy time is greater than the time threshold. In other embodiments, it can be determined based on the error correction code (ECC) in the memory card 171. In some embodiments, any status information returned by the memory card 171 can also be obtained when executing the access instruction. This status information is, for example, a health report in the eMMC protocol or the UFS protocol. The controller 120 can determine whether an error occurs based on this health report. In some embodiments, the controller 120 may also calculate the transfer rate of the memory card and determine that an error has occurred when the transfer rate is less than a threshold value.

If the result of step 322 is yes, controller 120 determines in step 330 whether the error meets the switching condition. If the switching condition is met, it indicates that memory card 171 has been damaged to a certain extent. Continuing to use it may result in data loss. Therefore, it is necessary to switch to another memory card 172. In this embodiment, step 330 includes steps 331 and 332. In step 331, the error count is accumulated based on the error. In step 332, it is determined whether the error count is greater than the threshold value. If the error count is not greater than the threshold, the process returns to step 321 to accept the next access command. If the error count is greater than the threshold, the switch condition is met. Then, in step 340, the controller 120 sets slot 142 as the active slot. When step 311 is executed for the second time, the controller 120 and the electronic device 160 are initialized to provide information about the memory card 172. In step 312, the slot identification code "2" is selected.

In other embodiments, step 330 may also determine whether the error meets the switching condition based on the health report returned by the memory card. For example, VENDOR_PROPRIETARY_HEALTH_REPORT [301-270], DEVICE_LIFE_TIME_EST_TYP_B [269], DEVICE_LIFE_TIME_EST_TYP_A [268], PRE_EOL_INFO [267], and information such as bPreEOLInfo, bDeviceLifeTimeEstA, bDeviceLifeTimeEstB, and VendorPropInfo defined in the UFS specification may be read from the health report. In other embodiments, the busy time may be input into the machine learning model mentioned in the first embodiment, and the value output by the model may be used to determine whether the switching condition is met.

Referring to Figure 1 , in some embodiments, the health status of memory cards 171 and 172 can be communicated to the user via indicator devices 151 and 152. For example, before receiving an access command, controller 120 sets indicator devices 151 and 152 to a healthy mode. This healthy mode may, for example, turn off an LED, mute a buzzer, or display a first pattern on the display panel. In other words, when slot 141 is set as the active slot, indicator devices 151 and 152 are both in healthy mode. When the activation slot switches to slot 142 (because the switching conditions are met), this indicates that slot 141 is damaged. Therefore, controller 120 sets indicator device 151 to an abnormal mode. For example, it can set the LED to conduct (light up), set the buzzer to sound, or set the display panel to provide a second pattern. In this way, the user can identify the health status of memory cards 171 and 172 through the light, sound, and pattern provided by indicator devices 151 and 152.

This disclosure provides two embodiments, which can be implemented independently or in combination. For example, step 322 of FIG. 3 can adopt the method of the first embodiment or another method. The method provided in the first embodiment can be used to determine whether to switch memory cards, or it can be used alone to determine the health of a memory card. In addition, the hardware architecture of the two embodiments does not need to be identical. For example, in the first embodiment, the memory card reader device may include one or more slots, while in the second embodiment, the memory card reader device includes two or more slots.

Although the present invention has been disclosed above by way of embodiments, they are not intended to limit the present invention. Any person having ordinary skill in the art may make slight modifications and improvements without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention. Therefore, the scope of protection of the present invention shall be determined by the scope of the attached patent application.

110: Memory card reader 120: Controller 130: Communication interface 141, 142: Slot 151, 152: Indicator 160: Electronic device 171, 172: Memory card 201-206, 310-312, 321-322, 330-332, 340: Steps

Figure 1 is a schematic diagram of a memory card reader according to a first embodiment. Figure 2 is a flow chart illustrating a memory card health status detection method according to the first embodiment. Figure 3 is a flow chart illustrating a control method for a memory card reader according to a second embodiment.

110: Memory card reader

120: Controller

130: Communication Interface

141,142: Slots

151,152: Indicator device

160: Electronic devices

171,172:Memory card

Claims (9)

A memory card reader device comprises: a communication interface for electrically connecting to an electronic device; a first slot for electrically connecting to a first memory card; a second slot for electrically connecting to a second memory card; and a controller electrically connected to the communication interface, the first slot, and the second slot, configured to set the first slot as an active slot, receive an access command from the electronic device, and access the first memory card according to the access command. The controller determines whether an error occurs when executing the access command and whether the error satisfies a switching condition. If the error satisfies the switching condition, the controller sets the second slot as the active slot. The controller is configured to obtain a busy time for executing the access instruction and determine whether the busy time is greater than a time threshold. If the busy time is greater than the time threshold, the controller determines that the error has occurred. The memory card reader device of claim 1, wherein when the error occurs, the controller accumulates an error count based on the error and determines whether the error count is greater than a threshold value. If the error count is greater than the threshold value, the controller determines that the switching condition is met. The memory card reader device of claim 1 further comprises: a first indicator device; and a second indicator device, wherein, before receiving the access command, the controller sets the first indicator device to a healthy mode and sets the second indicator device to the healthy mode, wherein, when the error satisfies the switching condition, the controller switches the first indicator device to an abnormal mode. The memory card reader device as described in claim 3, wherein the first indicating device and the second indicating device are light-emitting diodes or buzzers. A memory card reader device includes: a communication interface for electrically connecting to an electronic device; a slot for electrically connecting to a memory card; and a controller electrically connected to the communication interface and the slot, for receiving an access command from the electronic device and accessing the memory card according to the access command. The controller is configured to obtain a busy time for executing the access command and determine whether the busy time is greater than a time threshold. If the busy time is greater than the time threshold, the controller determines that an error has occurred. The memory card reading device as described in claim 5, wherein the controller is used to issue multiple continuous access instructions to the memory card according to the access instruction, and the busy time corresponds to one of the multiple continuous access instructions. A memory card reading device as described in claim 6, wherein the controller is used to obtain multiple historical busy times of the memory card, calculate the average and standard deviation of these historical busy times, and set the time threshold value based on the average and the standard deviation. The memory card reader device of claim 5, wherein when an error occurs, the controller is configured to accumulate an error count based on the error and determine whether the error count is greater than a threshold value. If the error count is greater than the threshold value, the controller is configured to generate a warning message. The memory card reader device as described in claim 8 further includes an indicator device, wherein the controller is used to issue the warning message through the indicator device, and the indicator device is a light-emitting diode or a buzzer.